Sword & PokerReview

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Is this the next Puzzle Quest?

By Levi Buchanan

Puzzle Quest was a monster hit for a number of reasons, but all pale against the basic genius of marrying Bejeweled gem-matching with high fantasy RPG stuff. Sword & Poker attempts that same magic. The title pretty much says it all. This is an RPG adventure where poker replaces turn-based combat. To defeat monsters in a deep dungeon, you must create the best poker hands possible out of the existing cards in the field and those in your personal stash. Surprise – it's a lot of fun.

Take that, mummy.The core of Sword & Poker are the "battles." You square off with a monster over a five-by-five grid. There are nine cards occupying the center of the field. You place two cards on each side of the existing nine to create hands. The better the hand, the more powerful the blow. A full house, for example, does more damage than a pair. However, as you collect new weapons in the dungeons, the value of hands changes. You may pick up a blade that does killer damage with a straight, but there is also a steep drop-off with other hands. So, therein lies the strategy of weapon selecting: do you go for a weapon with massive payoffs and hope you get great cards? Or do you play it safe and pray your health restoration charges keep you in the game?

Outside of the poker battles, you explore a multi-level dungeon. Between matches, you move space by space through dungeon maps, challenging monsters. There are treasure chests on most maps, but they are optional. Going for a treasure chest as opposed to making a beeline for the stairs to the new floor puts you in harm's way, but the chest rewards are great. If you lose a single battle, you fail out of the floor. So, you must keep your wits about you, make calculated risks, and pick your toughest opponents with each game… kinda like poker.

There is a surprising amount of depth in Sword & Poker, though. For one thing, you will soon learn you cannot play for the moment in card battles. You need to think a few steps ahead because if you line up additional hands with your cards, you can sneak in extra damage at the conclusion of a field. You also need to spend your treasure on items in the shop to not only increase your health (measured in coins), but also pull off special moves like steal your opponent's cards or force them into skipping a turn, which can be devastating if you have a great set of cards. And although it seems boneheaded to ever pass on a turn, there is real strategy in there, too. Passing to make sure you get to lay down the last cards in a field (if the battle is not over, you move on to a fresh field) is a great way to pick up extra damage bonuses against your foes. In the titanic boss battles that rage for several minutes, this is critical.

The Verdict

Sword & Poker is just awesome. The poker battles with monsters are spectacularly entertaining, especially as you dig deeper into the dungeon and pick up new weapons and items that serious affect the outcome of a hand. The art is excellent. And just exploring the dungeon levels, deciding whether or not to make a play for a treasure chest, is fun. If you think you&#Array;ve played enough poker games to last you a lifetime, you haven&#Array;t. Sword & Poker, with its genius pairing of Texas Hold&#Array;em and a classic RPG, is an amazing download.